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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Religious dream',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2019/02/28.jpg" alt="A pirate snow fort" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="dreams">
	<h2>Dream journal</h2>
	<p>
		I dreamed there was an ancient end times prophesy.
		Unlike most prophesies, this one had an exact date, so people knew about when it would happen.
		However, it still had a couple problems.
		First, it wasn&apos;t clear on exactly when in the day it would happen, but more importantly, it wasn&apos;t even clear about <strong>*what*</strong> would happen, or even where.
		People got in their minds that the prophesy was foretelling visitors.
		Some thought that the visitors were extra terrestrials.
		These people went to large fields, thinking the otherworldly visitors would need a flat place to land.
		Others thought these visitors would come up from below.
		Those people went to deep valleys, thinking they&apos;d want to emerge from somewhere that would require less digging, as if these sub-terrestrials would somehow not have a fixed location in the ground, and could come up from anywhere.
	</p>
	<p>
		I also dreamed Cyrus and I got into an argument, though I don&apos;t remember about what.
		He stole something from me as a result, but before he could, I took a component of the item so it was no good to him.
		There was no point in his keeping it, so I&apos;d hoped he&apos;d give it back.
		But he didn&apos;t.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		My discussion posts for the day:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<h3>First cell phone owned</h3>
		<p>
			Here, it&apos;s very important to make a distinction between telephones and computers.
			A computer is a multi-purpose device that can be programmed to do many things, depending on what hardware and what applications are installed.
			For example, I once had my laptop set up so it could place and take telephone calls.
			Did that make the laptop a telephone?
			No!
			Not everything that can use the telephone network is a telephone.
			A telephone is a device that specifically makes and places telephone calls, and depending on your definition, can also send and receive $a[SMS] messages over the telephone network.
			A telephone <strong>*cannot*</strong> run arbitrary applications and <strong>*cannot*</strong> access the Internet.
			So-called &quot;smartphones&quot; are not telephones at all, but pocket computers.
			It&apos;s very much a misnomer.
			So when it comes to cell phones, I&apos;m not sure many if any true cell phones still exist on the market, and those that ever did were by definition very simple.
		</p>
		<p>
			I have never owned a cell phone.
			As I mentioned in a past week, I don&apos;t like the telephone system, so I&apos;ve never had a reason to own one.
		</p>
		<p>
			Now if we instead ask about cellular devices or mobile devices instead of specifically cell phones, this opens up the field more.
			It allows for tablets, including the mini-tablets most people refer to as &quot;smartphones&quot;.
			In that case, my first was a Samsung GT-i9300.
			It was an old model, even at the time I purchased it, but was one of the few device models on the planet that could run the operating system I wanted: Replicant.
			My mother had been pushing for me to get an iPhone, but because iPhones are so locked down, they&apos;re useless to me.
			They work for many people, but for my use case, they do literally none of the things I expect from a computer, save for using $a[IP].
			But $a[IP] alone is useless when the device won&apos;t do any of the things <strong>*over*</strong> $a[IP] that you need it to.
			Well, I guess iPhones also have built-in cameras, and I do make use of cameras.
			But I could get just about any mobile device and have a camera built in.
			Besides, iPhones are creepy.
			I still lived with my mother at the time, and she was pissed off that I&apos;d gone off and gotten a device she didn&apos;t approve of.
			She only approved of one device though, and that device was useless in my hands.
			Perhaps I shouldn&apos;t&apos;ve gotten any mobile.
			I didn&apos;t give anyone the number of the thing, and disabled the $a[SMS].
			The thing technically had a telephone number associated with it, but unless you wanted to place a voice call, that number was useless for reaching me.
			People had to continue using email as before.
			I used the thing for email on the go, as well as looking up things on the Web when I needed information.
			My usage was simple, but it was nice to have.
		</p>
		<p>
			Soon, I started emailing my mother from the thing.
			She preferred $a[SMS] over email, while I preferred email, both because email addresses are more meaningful than telephone numbers and because I could access my email from any device, including my laptop, so I could use a full-sized keyboard if I received a message while I was at home.
			I couldn&apos;t ever use a full-sized keyboard for $a[SMS].
			So to make that work, I used my mother&apos;s carrier&apos;s $a[SMS] gateway, so it&apos;d come through as $a[SMS] on her end and email on mine.
			My mother&apos;s a control freak though, so she wigged out.
			She claimed I was trying to hide my number from her.
			So I handed over the number and directly told her that my device was not configured to use $a[SMS].
			She could call me if she wanted, but if she wanted text-based communication like she always does, she needed to continue sending $a[SMS] messages to my email address and letting the $a[SMS] gateways get those messages to me.
			She could have the number because it wasn&apos;t secret, but it wasn&apos;t actually useful to her.
			So what does she do?
			She immediately starts sending $a[SMS] messages to that number, then getting weird when I don&apos;t respond.
			I didn&apos;t even know they were being sent!
			Of course, she never called me, because that&apos;s not what she wanted the number for.
			She wanted to switch to sending me pure $a[SMS] messages for who-knows-what reason.
			It was rather frustrating; it showed just how little she listens to what she&apos;s told.
			I had to show her on the device that I&apos;d been telling the truth: $a[SMS] messages don&apos;t come through.
			I guess I&apos;d predicted she&apos;d try to push $a[SMS] though, which is why I&apos;d disabled it instead of only telling her not to reach me that way.
			It doesn&apos;t matter whether someone tells you they can&apos;t communicate over a certain channel or they telly you they simply don&apos;t want to.
			There&apos;s probably a reason for it; for example, the inability to use a full-sized keyboard (unless you have special equipment that I don&apos;t have) with $a[SMS] in my case.
			Either way, try a method they don&apos;t actually mind using!
			So she started using the $a[SMS] gateway as well.
			Or rather, she started using it <strong>*again*</strong>, because that&apos;s how we communicated before I&apos;d gotten the device.
			She&apos;d thought that my getting the device somehow would mean we had to change what communication channel we used, but it didn&apos;t.
			Why would it?
			She could use $a[SMS] on her end without requiring me to use it on mine.
			Everything worked as it had before.
			The only thing it changed was that she could reach me when I was out and about.
			She didn&apos;t need to wait until I got back home.
		</p>
		<p>
			Later, this device was stolen.
			I replaced it with a GT-i9100, and older model, but this one was second hand.
			Samsung devices, like most modern mobiles, are built to degrade.
			The thing didn&apos;t function well, and quit functioning fairly soon.
			I still have that second mobile, though once it broke down, I didn&apos;t replace it.
			I&apos;ve been without mobile service for quite a while now.
			It simply isn&apos;t needed for me.
			I just don&apos;t need to be plugged into the network at all times.
		</p>
		<h3>First computer owned</h3>
		<p>
			The first computer I ever owned was an Apple laptop of some sort.
			I don&apos;t recall the exact model, but the hinge broke as the hinges on Apple laptops are prone to do.
			Their hardware isn&apos;t exactly high quality.
			I have since escaped the Apple ecosystem though, and have been much happier.
			Debian&apos;ll run on just about anything, so I&apos;m not strongly tied to any particular company for my hardware.
			As long as the $a[BIOS] doesn&apos;t have too much $a[DRM] in it, I can usually get Debian installed and functioning.
		</p>
		<h3>How technology has impacted me</h3>
		<p>
			How has technology impacted me?
			I suppose that depends on what kind of technology you mean.
			Technology isn&apos;t limited to computers and other electronics.
			It&apos;s impossible to point to any part of my life that <strong>*hasn&apos;t*</strong> been completely changed by technology.
			It&apos;s impossible to point out any part of the lives of anyone I&apos;ve ever known or conversed with that hasn&apos;t been impacted by technology.
		</p>
		<p>
			I shouldn&apos;t be alive right now.
			For a while as a child, every other winter, my airway would close off.
			Ambulances and medical technology at the hospital kept bringing me back to health.
			Eventually, my body stopped trying to kick the bucket, but I&apos;ve undergone surgical sterilisation, so nature&apos;s failure to end my bloodline was corrected in the end.
			I guess that story is two-fold: technology saved my life for the time being, and also ensured I don&apos;t need to worry about accidentally creating more people.
			Medical technology also mostly saved my vision when I came down with iritis.
			My vision was irreversibly damaged, but I was able to regain most of it.
			I&apos;m also planning to use further medical technology to get my body to match my mind.
			I&apos;m non-binary, but people won&apos;t stop misgendering me based on my sex.
			With a bit of body work, I&apos;ll look more gender-neutral like I should.
		</p>
		<p>
			Buildings are technology as well.
			I can&apos;t imagine living outside.
			It&apos;d be horrible.
			It&apos;s been snowing for the past few days here, but I get to sleep inside where it&apos;s warm.
			Getting food and water are so much easier with modern technology as well.
			If I get thirsty, I can head to the nearest faucet.
			I don&apos;t have to tote litres upon litres of water to my home from the nearby river or something, nor do I need to tote a bunch of water to work with me.
			And speaking of work, bicycle technology allows me to get to work faster and easier, and even lets me run errands faster.
			Paved roads, another modern technology, work quite well in combination with bikes.
			Most Thursdays, though not today due to all the snow in the area, I bike thirteen kilometres to a meeting and the same thirteen kilometres to get back home.
			Travelling twenty-six kilometres in a day each week just wouldn&apos;t be feasible without technology to help me out!
			Paper- and book-making technology, as well as printing technology in general, has put me in a world full of literacy.
			Writing is all around us, giving us information.
			I even write notes to myself, allowing me to effectively remember more, something not really feasible without paper or writing implements.
			I wouldn&apos;t call written language itself a technology, but it&apos;s only really made feasible to use with technology.
		</p>
		<p>
			As for computers themselves, I keep a website with a daily journal.
			Years worth of my history are preserved, and I can go back and look at that.
			Sometimes, I do.
			My journal also helps me express my feelings, something I don&apos;t otherwise often have a good way to do.
			A journal&apos;s not something I&apos;d ever consider keeping on paper, so having my laptop and website are essential to me for this task.
			I&apos;ve also conversed with people all over the world, both via email and via $a[IRC], a feat I&apos;d never have accomplished without computers and the Internet.
			When things get me down, it&apos;s usually my website that gives me a reason to push forward anyway.
			It&apos;s not an impressive website by any means, but it&apos;s almost like a part of me, and helps me keep going.
			I guess where some people turn to religion, I instead turn to technology.
			The Web has also made looking up information incredibly easy.
			I suppose without the Internet, I&apos;d be as superstitious as my parents.
			They believe some ethereal and unknowable being created the universe and all of us.
			But I&apos;ve gotten the information needed to realise that while this is technically a possibility, it&apos;s highly unlikely.
			Technology has saved me from mythology; who even knows where I&apos;d be without it?
		</p>
		<p>
			I could go on forever about technology that has impacted my life, but I&apos;d probably need to write a twenty-or-so-page paper on the topic to cover everything.
			I have a schedule to keep though, so I&apos;ll cut it off here.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I feel for the people effected by this glitch.
			I really do.
			They lost their homes to foreclosure, and that was terrible.
			I would like to point out though that this error cause agreements already in place to not get modified.
			That means clients had already agreed to terms and they were trying to get those terms changed.
			Their inability to comply with their original agreements is in no way the fault of the bank.
			It pains me to say this, considering that in general, I think banks and other large corporations are usually evil, but this tragedy wasn&apos;t their fault.
			Yes, there was a computer error.
			Yes, the tragedy would have been prevented without that error.
			Yes, if the bank had opened up their source code and allowed others to see and audit it like they should have, the error would likely have been caught before it caused as much damage as it did.
			But this is just another case in which you shouldn&apos;t agree to terms you can&apos;t abide by.
			The customers shouldn&apos;t blame this on the bank.
		</p>
		<p>
			If I were on the development team that programmed the error, I would feel ashamed that I&apos;d worked on a project that had hidden away the source code.
			My hiding away of the source code prevented this tragedy from itself being prevented.
			The error itself wouldn&apos;t be the problem in my mind though, as everyone commits error.
			Programming the error was an accident.
			Choosing to work for an employer that hides source code away so it can&apos;t be audited was the actual mistake.
		</p>
		<p>
			If I were one of the people affected by the glitch, I&apos;d probably be angry with myself for entering into an agreement I couldn&apos;t keep.
			Once the glitch was revealed, I&apos;d probably misdirect my anger toward the bank for a time, though I would hope I&apos;d come to my senses eventually and realise my anger was misdirected.
		</p>
		<p>
			What are the responsibilities of a programmer?
			That depends entirely on your moral framework, which means it depends entirely on who you ask.
			For me, first and foremost, it is the responsibility of a programmer to never hand over or otherwise put into use software of any kind without releasing the source code to the public under a copyleft license.
			Free but not copyleft licenses may be acceptable too, depending on the situation.
			If an employer isn&apos;t the type that releases their code freely, your choice to work for them is immoral.
			I know this isn&apos;t a popular opinion, and I don&apos;t really expect most people to share it.
			But if you ask me what the responsibilities of a developer are, they all pretty much boil down to using your skills in such a way that you aren&apos;t holding back technological advancement.
			Hiding the source code away hinders innovation, and isn&apos;t acceptable in any sense of the word.
			I&apos;d rather work fast food or pump gas than allow a company to make me write proprietary code.
			In other words, there&apos;s <strong>*always*</strong> a choice, even if that choice means not working as a programmer.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<h3>Communication encryption</h3>
		<p>
			First, I will be taking a look at network encryption.
			Every website should use encryption ($a[HTTPS], which is $a[HTTP] over $a[TLS]), regardless of whether users are able to input information.
			The simple fact is that government organisations and $a[ISP]s alike are constantly spying on us, and it&apos;s creepy.
			Encryption makes it harder for them to do that.
			However, when processing payments, you have the added threat of third parties trying to snoop and gather payment information, such as credit card numbers <a href="https://opentextbc.ca/electroniccommerce/chapter/electronic-commerce-technology/">(Watson, n.d.)</a>.
			Encryption really isn&apos;t optional, even when nothing secret is being communicated, but it&apos;s even more important when something secret such as payment information <strong>*is*</strong>.
			I won&apos;t go into listing all types of sensitive information though, as it doesn&apos;t matter, seeing as even non-sensitive information needs to be encrypted every single time anything is transmitted.
		</p>
		<p>
			The Secure Electronic Transaction protocol can also be used for processing payments using credit cards, ans likewise uses encryption when doing so.
			The nice thing about Secure Electronic Transaction is that the merchant never even has access to your card details, meaning they can&apos;t be copied by crackers or misused by the merchant.
		</p>
		<h3>On-disc encryption</h3>
		<p>
			If you&apos;re storing payment details, those payment details need to be encrypted as well.
			If a cracker breaks into the system and copies that data, they won&apos;t be able to use it unless they also managed to copy the encryption key.
			A firewall can also help prevent them from getting the data to begin with <a href="https://opentextbc.ca/electroniccommerce/chapter/electronic-commerce-technology/">(Watson, n.d.)</a>, though it&apos;s not a replacement for encryption, and should instead be used alongside it.
		</p>
		<h3>Laws</h3>
		<p>
			We&apos;re asked how a business should keep up with the changing laws on e-commerce.
			A business has several types of regulations they need to keep up on, and e-commerce laws are just one branch of that.
			This is a part of why large businesses usually have a lawyer on the payroll.
			This is just one more area that their lawyer should keep an eye on.
			For smaller businesses, keeping a lawyer on the payroll may not be an option, but again, you&apos;re already needing to keep an eye on changing laws in other areas of your business.
			I&apos;d recommend regular Web searches on e-commerce regulations to see what&apos;s changed.
		</p>
		<h3>Threats</h3>
		<p>
			We&apos;re asked to address how to stop crackers, phishers, and malware.
			Good firewalls, on-disc encryption, and encrypted network protocols should keep most crackers at bay.
			Regular security audits by third parties are necessary as adversaries evolve.
			Phishers are mainly stopped by educating the public.
			For example, getting them to always check the domain name of websites before entering any user names, passwords, or payment details.
			Of course, this check doesn&apos;t mean anything without further education, so they can recognise host names in $a[URI]s.
			Knowing it&apos;s &quot;the part right after the <code>https://</code> isn&apos;t good enough.
			For example, I could set up a page at the $a[URI] <code>http://bandcamp.com.y.st/buy_album.php</code>, because I have the <code>y.st.</code> domain and can set up whatever subdomains I want to.
			That would make me look like the Bandcamp music store to someone that sees the <code>bandcamp.com</code> part and doesn&apos;t realise that <code>.y.st</code> is a part of the host name and that I&apos;m not actually Bandcamp.
			Education is absolutely critical.
			People also need to be educated as to not enter information on a page that uses an <code>http://</code> address instead of an <code>https://</code> address, and when entering sensitive information, to check the validity of the $a[TLS] certificate before entering anything at all.
			Malware won&apos;t be as much of an issue once people are educated to not use buggy, insecure systems such as Windows.
			Any general purpose system can suffer from malware, but Windows make getting users to install malware unknowingly outright easy.
			I don&apos;t really have any advice as to how businesses can deal with the problem of malware on their customers&apos; machines, but if it&apos;s on the customers&apos; machines, it&apos;s the customers&apos; problem, not the problem of the businesses they happen to interact with.
		</p>
		<div class="APA_references">
			<h3>References:</h3>
			<p>
				Watson, R. T. (n.d.). <a href="https://opentextbc.ca/electroniccommerce/chapter/electronic-commerce-technology/">Electronic commerce technology - Electronic Commerce: The Strategic Perspective</a>. Retrieved from <code>https://opentextbc.ca/electroniccommerce/chapter/electronic-commerce-technology/</code>
			</p>
		</div>
	</blockquote>
</section>
END
);
